Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1887-11-22
Hon. VIM. L. Wilson'S Speech.

people of Jefferson at the Court
House in this place, or Tuesday
last, pom the subject of "Agricul-
tural Depression and Tax Reduc-
tion." Mr.. Wilson'S speech was an
able exposition of the evils of the
present tariff laws, and was listened
to. with. close attention by an audi
ence composed of all classes of our
people.
The speaker sketched rapidly the
great change in the conditions under
which our farmers produce and mar
ket their grain, wrought by silent but
potent agencies in the last twenty
years. The immense development of
railroads upon the land, stretching
their arms into almost every neigh
borhood where population or produce
ton calls for them, and Of steam nav
igation on the sea, with the parallel
growth of the telegraph, and other
causes which he referred to, have
practically aunihilated distance and
time, and enabled the wheat pro-
ducers of all the world to pour their
surplus product cheaply and quickly
wherever there are buyers. One
third of the crop raised in the United
States has to seek a foreign market {;
hence that market decides to the frac-
ton of a cent the price at home
This is not q temporary but a perma-
nent condition of future production,
and local or.tcmporary causes cannot
greatly affect the market, any nor
than a flood or drouth in the greatest
river can make a great or permanent
impression on the ~ True, the
farmer enjoys some compromising
benefits in cheaper transportation,
cheaper supplies. and la~bor-saving
machinery, but he has hitherto been
oppressed by two heavy and unjust
burdens that in the terrible competi-
ton to which he is now subject, he
has strong reason to resist.
First, as the Jefferson countyfarmer
has to pay all the charges of sending
his grain to Liverpool, (where he sells
it in competition with the wheat of
the Northwest, of Manitoba, of Chill,
Australia, and nov even of India,
where the farmers outfit costs him
about $50, and his labor about $3.50
per month";, he is greatly interested
in cheap transportation. But here,
as everywhere else in the country I'M
der like conditions, he has had to pay
cxtortionate railroad charges to make
up for losses incurred by the carriers
in. their struggle for traffic at the
great distributing centers of the
try:-a practice under which he has
not only paid his W freight but that
OF more favored shippers also.
Congress has undertaken to remedy
this by the Interstate Commerce law,
which he explained in some detail.
\ second and heavier burden is
thrown upon the farmer by III pres
ent system of federal taxation. The
balance sheet OF the Treasury shows
a surplus revenue Of over one hun
dred and three r.;llion dollars for the
past fiscal year. But great as this
unnecded surplus is, it represents q
much greater burden of taxes, at least
two dollars having gone into private
Golfers for every dollar gathered into
the Treasury. And as with the rail-
roads, the farmer here also pays not
only his own taxes but a large share
of those of other callings, for the Gov
crnment selects certain industries,
either because they are supposed to
be unable to stand alone, or because
they are influential enough to secure
its favor, and makes n pack horse of
agriculture to bear them in safety,
comfort and luxury. This it does by
raising tariff rates so high as to give
their products q monopoly of the
home market, where the farmer has
to buy, while he is obliged to send
his products to the foreign market to
sell, whittier the government cannot
follow him to raise prices one farthing.
Mr.. Wilson traced the tariff legis-
lation from 1861, showing the reasons
or the pretexts on which rates have
been steadily raised, and the shifts
and devices by which all efforts to re-
duce them have been foiled, until our
taxes in 1887 are fire dollars o. the
hundred dollars higher than they were
in 1882, when all parties agreed that
there ought to be a reduction, and
the tariff commission reported that
such reduction ought to be 25 per
cent.
Our present tariff is neither n rev.
enue nor 4 protective tariff, but a mo-
nopoly system.
Mr.. W. gave several striking cx-
ampIes OF great monopoIies that have
grown up under it, and of the a
ner in which they use their wealth to
defeat tax reduction and to destroy the